I still hope it's Carol. Brandon's character was just a useful tool (in every senses).

 

My understanding is, Brandon was the guard and so he was the first one to discover Negan had escaped. So, he took off immediately going after Negan. He must have some good tracking skill too. Then, on next morning, Siddiq and Daryl went looking for Negan. Though having better tracking skill, they could not find Negan as Negan must have gone too far now. The leather coat and new Lucille were not part of a nearby supplies stash but were carried in Brandon's backpack.

 

Why wasn’t Lucille destroyed? What were they thinking? Now the leather jacket I can understand but how was Brandon able to get his hands on these items so easily?

 

One of the trailers for this season had Michonne holding Lucille. So maybe there's a story behind that, her keeping it for a reason, that we'll learn about later. I agree that it's odd though. It'd be the first thing I'd destroy.

 

My take is that the bat we saw last night is not Lucille but rather a Lucille wannabe

Remember they were stopped at the point where Alpha had barbed wire in place.

Walker attacks Negan but Brandon does not help

Brandon tells Negan - sorry but I had to wrap this for you.

Meaning he had to wrap the bat in the barbed wire that they happened upon

Also the bat that Brandon gives to Negan has black tape wrapped around the end of the bat. Lucille had no tape.

 

Thanks. I’ll have to go back and watch that again. I’m still curious as to where Brandon got a bat at all. Never remember seeing anyone play baseball but then of course it might have been in a closet or storage space in one of the houses in the compound.

 

Exactly, that wasn't Lucille. It was a different bat with a black grip that Brandon wrapped in some of the barbed wire that the walker Negan killed was caught up in.

As far as who let him out. I know the money is on Carol, but I'm sticking with it was Daryl.

 

Carol. I think I saw her give a WTH look at seeing Negan with the Whisperers in a preview. Maybe that is a false memory. But I'm going with Carol.

 

Good catch. I'm going to have to rewatch parts of the episode, mainly the Negan and Alpha scenes. A lot was going on during them.

 

I was dead set against it being Carol but the preview now has at least made me more open to the possibility. But I'm sticking with Daryl too. Carol also never had any interaction with Negan previously.